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160 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
mended it, in the passages that I have referred to above : for the purer and
clearer the vessel is, out of which we drink a generous cordial, the more grate-
ful and effectual will that cordial prove ; and the more accurately a man is in-
structed in Holy Writ, agreeably to philology,* or a correct knowledge of the
Sacred Text in its letter, or literal meaning, the more he is brought into a capa-
city to apprehend, with greater certainty, perfection and clearness, the true mean-
ing of any passage of Scripture which presents itself. As to my genuine opin-
ion upon this subject, it may be seen from a short discourse upon the twofold
method of interpreting the Sacred Scriptures, which I annex to this letter by-
way of appendix.
" III. With respect to the difficulty, which, dear and reverend Sir, so much
affects you, namely, that Swedenborg, in some passages, has taught that the
literal sense perishes as a shell, without use, and that thereby the author con-
tradicts himself; the manner in which we are to understand this, v/ill be made
clear to our satisfaction by a diligent consideration of 1871, in the Arcana Cceles-
tia, taken in their connexion with what I have said above, and what I have
further to remark. In the other life, where man is a spirit, the natural and
material ideas, which derived their origin from the literal sense, which sounds
terrestrial and worldly, perish, and do not appear again, forasmuch as the inter-
nal, spiritual, and celestial, meaning succeeds tliem, which is accommodated to
the nature of spirits ; and even in this life, while man fixes his attention upon
the light of heaven, he does not so much observe the literal words and forms of
expression of the Scriptures. This circumstance also takes place in private and
general conversation, when ignorant and simple people count words, but the
wise insist chiefly upon the purport and meaning of the speaker: some will re-
count verbatim the fine and ornamented expressions, while others despise, and
even forget, the phraseology, but retain and weigh the importance of the subject.
The wiser a man is, the less solicitous he is about words ; it becomes a prudent
man, carefully to weigh the things themselves, and not to adhere solely to the
externa], that is, the literal form of the discourse;—how much more, then, does
it behove that man so to do who looks above nature. Hence it is evident, that the
literal sense of the Word stands in analogy to the state of the inhabitants of the
respective worlds. On this occasion, it may not be useless to consider and
weigh with proper attention, the Doctrine of the Neio Jerusalem concerning the
Sacred Scriptures, 65, Q>Q ; also Arcana Ca^lestia, 2395, and Concerning the Inter-
course between the Soul and the Body, 12. The chief obstacle which prevents most
of the learned from thinking and speaking with proper accuracy of the letter of
the Scripture, is undoubtedly this, that they dispute with too much insipidity,
and disparage the divine Word and truth, which chiefly originates in their igno-
rance of the spiritual nature of things, because they are misled through the
materiality of their ideas ; but if we give a thorough consideration to the Doctrine
of the Sacred Scn^j^wre above-mentioned, and withal consult the Arcana Cailestia,
2763, 7055, 9094, with the Heaven and Hell, 254, and the Apocalypse Revealed, 945,
we shall be struck with such an astonishment at the Sacred Scripture, as to ac-
knowledge how very wrong it is to startle so much at writings similar in their
nature.
* la the Intellectual Repository/ it is ’’ i^hiloso2}hy," but this is a mistake : in the origi-
nal it \?.2}hilology.
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